Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.
The Legends
By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)T
All day they fought on the wild sea-shore.
The sun dropped downward, they fought amain;
The tide rose upward, they fought the more.
The sands were covered; the sea grew red;
The warriors fought in the reddening wave:
That night the sea was the sea-king’s bed;
The land-king drifted past cliff and cave.
(We were pagans then) in the land of Eire;
Like eagles men vanquished the noontide blaze;
Their bones were iron, their nerves were wire.
We are hinds to-day! The Nemedian kings
Like elk and bison of old stalked forth;
Their name—the sea-kings’—forever clings
To the “Giant Stepping-Stones” round the North.